Discipline(s):
Demography, Epidemiology, Economics

Area(s) of Expertise:
Use of Biomarkers in Social Research, Role of Stress and Immune Function in Health Inequalities, Social Determinants of Infectious Disease

E-Mail:
jennbeamdowd@gmail.com

Background:
Jennifer Beam Dowd is currently Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Hunter College, School of Health Sciences, City University of New York(CUNY), and a Faculty Associate, CUNY Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR).  She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in August 2004, where she specialized in Economics and Demography, with a focus on socioeconomic inequalities in health. Her dissertation tested several mechanisms linking economic status and health outcomes, including the role of maternal health behaviors during pregnancy in explaining childhood health inequalities, as well as the role of biological markers of stress in explaining educational and income gradients in older adults. She also worked as a Health Researcher at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, DC on issues regarding children’s health insurance and Medicaid availability for persons with mental illness.  Her current research focuses on the interaction of social and biological factors over the life course, in particular how stress and immune function may link social factors to later life health outcomes.   Prior to her graduate work, Jenn received a B.A. in Politics and Spanish from Washington and Lee University and served as a Luce Scholar at the Rural Development Foundation in East Java, Indonesia.

Journal Articles:
Click here for a list of Jennifer Dowd's available publications in PubMed.